Venomous Snakes: a Safety Guide for Reptile Keepers

Guest contribution from William Altimari, first published 1998 by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles

I'm a medical toxinologist, writing to make my field less scary and more understandable to people everywhere.

From time to time I receive information created by colleagues in the days before online posting was commonplace. Today I was honored to receive a copy of a classic safety guide, provided by author William Altimari. It was first released in 1998 by the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, in Herpetological Circular No.26; but most of what it says remains applicable today. With the author's permission, then, I am placing it here for a new generation of reptile specialists to read at leisure. You can read the entire document by clicking the line after the cover illustration, below.